Yearly Checkup

I have a 2005 Pilot LX. Car runs perfectly; has about 9000 miles. I took it in to the dealer for its yearly checkup. Before anything (including looking at the car) the estimate was about $600. This included replacing the air in the tires with nitrogen and replacing various fluids.

Is $600 in line, out of line, insane, actionable? (The actual bill was higher by about $70).

A friend of mine mentioned my bill to his mother who also has a new car (Chrysler) and her checkup was $100. But...?

ronnyc, I've never heard of replacing air with nitrogen on a Pilot. Looking through the Pilots maintenance schedule there is no mention of nitrogen in the tires. Here in Canada they seem to have four different maintenance procedures for the Pilot.Type 1,2,3 or 4.

I can't tell by your message if you've already went a head and had them do the work or not. If they haven't I would pass and go somewhere else.

If you've been doing regular maintenance on your Pilot, according to the schedule in front of me you should only need a type 1 (which is an oil and filter change only) or a type 2 which would consist of the oil change and a brake inspection, tie rod end inspection, suspension component inspection and a driveshaft boot inspection.

Maybe you can get Eliot Spitzer's attention before he leaves the AG's office for the governor's palace.

I did a 7,500 mile service for a Virginia zip code with the Maintenance Guide for an '05 LX and came up with $122.07. The 15,000 mile service comes in at $164.42. (The 11,250 one was $31.75).

Either way, you seem to have paid too much based on what you've told us, and a request for an adjustment may be in order. If the dealer doesn't agree, then you may consider contacting the AG/Consumer Protection office or BBB or your local news expose channel for advice.

"I've never heard of replacing air with nitrogen on a Pilot. Looking through the Pilots maintenance schedule there is no mention of nitrogen in the tires."

Any local Goodyear, or even Costco will switch you over to Nitrogen for about $20 per tire. The thing with Nitrogen is the tire will not seep as fast as normal air will. Also Nitrogen will not change in pressure with temp of tire / outside.

I checked around, calling several Honda dealers in Suffolk County (on Long Island). Explained my situation (2005 Pilot EX, 9000 miles, needs the 7500 mile check up). The prices I got were $96, $125, $144. I called Honda US up; they were polite but not really that interested.

I left a message for Potamkin Honda's general manager.

I'm pretty sure the next time I need to do a check up, it will not be there.

Sadly, I think you are right. I called them and the service manager was very nice and explained the rationale behind all of this. Now, I may not be the sharpest tack in the box, but I should be able to understand the necessity of $450 in extra work and I didn't.

Luckily, there are other Honda dealers around and I think my next checkup isn't for a long time.

I got a long explanation about the charges, etc. Long and short of it is that I should have read the manual and then had them explain everything to me, costs, reasons, etc. It's not like they hid anything from me; this is all on me, really.